1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic toner for visualizing an electrostatic latent image formed by an electrophotographic process, an electrostatic printing process, an electrostatic recording process, etc., and an image-forming system using the electrophotographic toner.
2. Background Art
Of printing and recording processes, for example, an electrophotographic process is carried out as follows. A photoconductive photosensitive body (hereinafter referred to as “photoconductor”) is electrostatically charged and exposed to light so that an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoconductor. Then, the electrostatic latent image is developed into a toner image by a fine particle-shaped toner containing a colorant, etc. bound with a resin as a binder. The obtained toner image is transferred onto a recording medium and fixed thereto to thereby obtain a recording image.
In the electrostatic image recording process, there are used a one-component toner using only a toner for performing electrostatic charging and carrying without use of any magnetic carrier, and a two-component toner using a magnetic carrier so that a toner is mixed with the magnetic carrier in use. The one-component toner has both charging power and carrying power in itself, so that maintenance can be made easily. The one-component toner is used popularly in a small-size low-speed system. On the other hand, the two-component toner is used popularly in a large-size high-speed system because of charge and printing stability, good fixing characteristic, etc. in spite of use of the magnetic carrier.
Attention to the environment and ecosystem has been recently demanded more strongly than ever. Materials used in such toners have begun to be examined closely before use. Particularly in a large-size high-speed system, the amount of the toner used becomes relatively large, so that the required level of safety becomes stringent. Development of a toner paying more attention to the environment and safety than ever has been demanded. In addition, a toner capable of being fixed at a low temperature has been demanded with the advance of increase in speed, reduction in fixing energy, and so on.